In the 4th quarter of 2013, the amount spent in retail consumer sales was estimated at $1.147 trillion. More than 90 percent of those retail sales were made at the physical Point of Sale (POS) and an additional $69 billion was spent in e-commerce (at 6 percent of total retail sales). According to the latest figures released by EMVco, the company says 2.37 billion EMV chip cards, as of 2013 are in use globally. The Aite Group has reported according to its research that by the end of 2015, 70% of all payments cards in the United States will be EMV chip cards.
Global unit shipments of smart cards are expected to rise by 2.1 billion from 2014 through 2019, about equal to the combined populations of China, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil, according to IHS Technology. Smart card shipments in 2019 will rise to 10.9 billion units, up from 8.8 billion in 2014. To put this in perspective, the number of smart cards shipped in 2019 alone will allow each of the world's 7.6 billion projected inhabitants to obtain 1.4 smart cards during the year.
Asia plays a key role in driving growth of the overall smart card market. Undoubtedly countries like China, India and Indonesia will be crucial to the overall health of the smart card market over the next five years. Moreover, electronic passports are contributing particularly high volumes for the Asian market. In fact, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest number of ePassport shipments in 2013.
A general description of the state of the art of smartcards can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,016,191 which is incorporated herein by reference. While this and other smartcard systems have made significant improvements in solving some of the authentication issues which have permitted significant fraud in the credit card industry in the past, there remains significant weakness in current existing and proposed systems.
There has been a great deal of discussion in the press over the past several years about fraud related to debit and credit cards. Generally, this fraud has been perpetrated through the theft of credit card numbers from companies such as Target and Home Depot. A number of solutions have been proposed to this problem as reflected in the following.
SecureCard (www.securecardtechnologies.com/) SecureCard is a secure payment card that operates in nearly identical fashion to traditional credit and debit cards. The difference is that the SecureCard comes with an embedded computer chip and a new battery technology that uses identification authenticators to assign a token to a user. The token then generates a distinct and random personal identification code in the form of a one-time password that is time- and event-based. This card can be defeated in a number of ways including, if it is stolen, the thief can use it to pay for merchandise.
SmartMetric (www.smartmetric.com/) SmartMetric provides fingerprint-activated payment credit and debit cards. The fingerprint verification is done on the card using the SmartMetric developed miniature battery-powered fingerprint reader that is built inside the credit or debit card. On the surface is a capacitive fingerprint sensor. When a match with the card user's fingerprint takes place, the card's internal processor activates the card's surface-mounted EMV chip that then allows the card to be used at any standard EMV compliant ATM or Point Of Sale merchant card reader. This card can be defeated if the hacker has captured the fingerprint of the owner and made a thin film which expresses the fingerprint. This card requires a separate communication to the Internet to transmit the credit card information to the card issuer. Also, it requires a cell phone call to the SmartMetric site to change the credit card which is used. Finally, the fingerprint swipe reader is far less accurate than other methods which capture the entire fingerprint either optically, ultrasonically or capacitively. Reference is also made to WO/2005/020127A3 to Smartmetric.
Coin (onlycoin.com/). Coin does not provide any special fraud protection. It does allow the owner to replace several credit cards with one.
Plastc www.plastc.com/card. Plastc has a product which seems identical to Coin. It provides both a magnetic stripe with Pin and a EVN chip. It has an E-ink display touchscreen and can connect to other devices with Bluetooth. Its flash memory can hold up to 20 credit or ID cards. Its rechargeable Battery can hold a 30-day charge and wireless charging is provided. As with Coin, its magnetic stripe is rewritable.
All of the above smartcards can likely be defeated if the theft obtains possession of the smartcard and, in some cases, a copy of the owner's fingerprint. Once the physical card has been acquired it can be hacked and any information including private keys stored therein can be obtained. What is needed, therefore, is a smartcard which cannot be hacked.
A significant feature of this invention is to use a mesh of fine wires which are incorporated within a plastic film to provide a protection mechanism for critical data stored within the device such as one or more private keys and stored biometric information. Although various tripwire systems and devices have been in use for many years, the use of very fine wires embedded in a plastic film to comprise a continuous circuit where the resistance, capacitance or inductance is monitored for any significant changes is believed to be novel for use in covering electronic circuits. The closest art seems to be US 20080211669 which describes a method of sensing for intrusion into large storage areas.
Additional prior art to be considered includes WO2015/148607 to the same assignee and prior art cited in its search report, namely, US 20020130673, US 20040101178, US 20040177658, US 20100097215, US 20100180350, US 20100327856, US 20110187523, US 20120212414, U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,243, and EP 0128672, US 20120170819 to ASD, EP 1208528B1, EP 1766547A1, EP 1055188A1, EP 1330185A1, US 20130108125, US 20080069413, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,778,686, 7,330,571, and WO/1999/041696A1 to Fingerprint Cards AB, EP1759337A1, WO/2005/104704A1, US20050240778 to e-Smart Technologies Inc., EP 2290589A1, EP 2463808A1, US 20140015639, and US 20130166902 to Gemalto, US 20080298646, WO 2006/080886A1, US20140221044, and US 20120047566 to Precision Biometrics AB, JP2010108506A, JP2012128860A, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,016,203, 6,484,937, EP 1374160B1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,505,827, 8,517,278, and 8,430,323 to Oberthur Technologies, US 20100275259, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,715,593, 8,144,941, WO/2004/114190A1, and US 20100117794 to URU Technology Inc., EP 2304644B1, WO/2009/140968A1, EP 2304644A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,681,232, EP 2290625A1, US 20100265037, EP2278564A1, WO/2005/086102A1, US20070189581, and US20050194452 to CardLab, WO/2001/091048A1, WO/2004/047018A2, U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,551, US 20030116633, and WO/2004/068395A2 to CardTech, DE19818670A1 and DE10339065A1 to ZeitControl, U.S. Pat. No. 8,496,174, US20080000989, US20080051143, EP2051188A1, EP1892645B1, EP1892645A2, EP2110751A1, EP2093702A1, EP1873689A1, and EP1892645A3 to WatchData, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,429,036, 8,403,229, 8,419,889, 8,720,786, US20090315321, US20110084144, US20110258070, US20120047716, US20120256003, US20130132229, US20130306512, US20140021261, US20140122289 and WO/2014/015329A1, to CPI Card Group; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,637,858, 6,964,377, 8,226,014, 8,282,010, 8,403,230, 8,423,797, 8,814,036, US20100217799 and US20140138444 to Giesecke & Devrient, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,505,945, 8,358,778, 8,549,308 and WO/2008/102169A2, to Cryptomathic, JP2011025083A, EP1567057A1, EP1303829A2, EP1058513B1, EP1303828A2, EP1581111A2, EP1292227A2, EP2332095A1, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,184,581 and 7,251,351 to Idex, and WO/2000/048133A1, WO/2004/019262A1, WO/2000/042493A1, WO/2000/051084A1, WO/1997/036259A1, WO/2000/074566A1, WO/2001/038506A1, WO/2000/022581A1, WO/2000/011617A1, and WO/2001/018753A1 to Bromba Biometrics.
Various additional references for consideration include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,434,398, 7,270,276, 7,506,165, 8,242,775, US20040019522, US20050240528, US20060065741, US20090045257, US20100181999, US20120318876, WO/2004/012052A2, WO/2005/109887A1, and WO/2013/109134A1.
Websites to consider for disclosing devices potentially in the same field of endeavor include: sonavation.com/technology/, www.asd0309.com/, www.asd0309.com/products/index.html#FPTS, www.fingerprints.com/, www.fingerprints.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FPC1020-Product-Sheet_rev-D.pdf, www.fingerprints.com/technology/patents/, www.e-smart.com/, www.e-smart.com/products_ssc.html, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONmb161SZzo, www.gemalto.com/, www.gemalto.com/products/dotnet_bio/index.html, www.gemalto.com/products/dotnet_bio/resources/technical_doc.html, www.matchoncard.com/, www.precisebiometrics.com/, www.precisebiometrics.com/match-on-card-for-enterprise, www.globalplatform.org/documents/BiometricWhitePaper_March09.pdf, www.oberthur.com/, www.networkproductsguide.com/innovations/2010/Oberthur-Technologies.html, csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp1414.pdf, www.smartmetric.com/, www.divacard.com/, www.divacard.com/html/components.html, www.cardlab.dk/, www.cardlab.dk/index.php?id=147, www.sic.ca/, www.sic.ca/proximity-cards/, www.sic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/S.I.C.-Biometrics-Healthcare-Overview-Offer.pdf, www.pinkey.it/en, www.card-tech.it/en, www.pinkey.it/en/smart, www.card-tech.it/files/pictures/prodotti/key_features_pinkey_smart_eng_rev_1.1.pdf, www.idex.no/, www.idex.no/#!/products/smartfinger/, www.idex.no/products/smartfinger/#!/technology/, www.idex.no/products/smartfinger/#!/technology/fingerprint-imaging-and-authentication/, www.embedx.com/, www.embedx.com/pdfs/bio_security/BIOMETRIC_SECURITY-PERSONAL_IDENTIFICATION_VERIFICATION.pdf, www.bromba.com/, www.bromba.com/tdmoc11e.htm, www.bromba.com/tdmoc20e.htm, www.plastc.com, bgr.com/2014/10/07/plastc-card-release-date-price-preorders/, www.getfinal.com/, bgr.com/2014/10/10/coin-vs-plastc-vs-final/, www.yankodesign.com/2009/10/22/all-in-one-credit-card/, www.smartcardsource.com/, www.smartcardsource.com/contents/en-ca/d9_JCOP-NXP-cards.html, www.smartcardsource.com/contents/en-ca/d23_fareone.html, www.basiccard.com!, www.zeitcontrol.de/en, www.watchdata.com/, www.watchdata.com/en/bank/products-smart.jsp, www.cpicardgroup.com/, www.cpicardgroup.com/why-choose-cpi-card-group, www.cpicardgroup.com/emv-cards, www.gi-de.com/en/, www.gi-de.com/en/products_and_solutions/solutions/emv_payment_solutions/emv-payment-solutions.jsp, www.gi-de.com/en/products_and_solutions/products/electronic_payment/electronic-payment.jsp, www.cryptomathic.com, www.cryptomathic.com/products/emv/cardink, www.emue.co/, www.emue.com/node/22.html, www.smartcardfocus.com/, and www.smartcardfocus.com/shop/ilp/se-44/cards-and-tags/p/index.shtml.